Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Sauron, the Necromancer

Sauron, the Necromancer

Legendary Creature — Avatar Horror · {3}{B}{B} · Black commander

Menace Whenever Sauron attacks, exile target creature card from your graveyard. Create a tapped and attacking token that's a copy of that card, except it's a 3/3 black Wraith with menace. At the beginning of the next end step, exile that token unless Sauron is your Ring-bearer.

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What Sauron, the Necromancer actually does

Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.

• Triggered ability · attackWhenever Sauron attacks, exile target creature card from your graveyard. Create a tapped and attacking token that's a copy of that card, except it's a 3/3 black Wraith with menace. At the beginning of
• Keyword · menacemenace

What a Sauron, the Necromancer deck needs

Plays as copy engine. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.

• creature cards in the graveyard with strong attack or enter triggers (each attack makes a 3/3 copy)
• self-mill

The Sauron, the Necromancer deck plan

The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.

• 12× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
• 6× Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
• 4× Make the commander connect — a body that never deals combat damage never triggers
• 12× Make creature tokens — a static anthem or a go-wide commander needs a board to be wide
• 6× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
• 4× A team pump that actually pumps tokens
• 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
• 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
• 1× Answer a whole board at once

Best cards for Sauron, the Necromancer

Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.

Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →

Arcane Foundry is free to join and every tool is included: the Arcane Forge deck builder, the ARCANE Analyzer that scores a deck by simulating games rather than counting staples, a card scanner, a collection vault, and live webcam Commander tables. Read the guide · Browse all commanders · Pricing